Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela wanted the city to stop payments to attorney Ben Kuehne in cases where he was representing former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla in civil court. Kuehne is also Diaz de la Portilla’s attorney in his felony criminal case on money laundering, bribery and other public corruption charges.

But before he could vote on a resolution he brought to the commission last week, he got news that ADLP had already replaced Kuehne with former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, who was charged with federal bribery and extortion charges himself, caught in an FBI sting plotting to take some bogus grant money in 2013.

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A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge last week denied a motion from former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez to dismiss him from the civil case brought against former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who is already facing bribery and money laundering charges in a separate case — for shaking down the operator of the Rickenbacker Marina.

But in her decision, Judge Mavel Ruiz also laid out the groundwork for another criminal indictment, this time under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO.

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Could be up to the new sheriff to fight corruption

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Commission will consider a review of pending litigation

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Deal tied to public corruption case vs commissioner

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Former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla lost his house to a foreclosure sale last November, even though he is fighting it now in court. And on Thursday, he lost the family farm.

A Krome Avenue property owned by Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended last September after he was arrested on a dozen felony public corruption charges including money laundering and bribery, was auctioned off by the county for what looks like $9,938 in unpaid taxes, according to the case files at the Miami-Dade Clerk’s office.

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